Coords - One Piece

Here I have an example of a two-color coord with Angelic Pretty's Classic Doll Jacket. This is a true coat because it has actual lapels. Paired with a pink maid dress and thigh highs, the pink bows take the cuteness over the top. Ultra girly and super adorable in my opinion. I wore this outfit in San Francisco on a lazy Sunday after a visit to the Angelic Pretty shop. In such a short dress with garters and pink heels, I felt so feminine and submissive. I mean, look at those cute little pink bows! A lot of people came up to me and it was one of my most complemented outfits to date.

A perfect example of a two-color coord in this outfit. Black is the root note and white is functioning as the fifth. So this is the only one piece I have in my Coords page that isn't Angelic Pretty. Here we have my Halloween costume, which is supposed to me Miku from my favorite hard rock five-member all-girl band from Japan - Band-Maid! I do have Angelic Pretty's ghost cross-body bag to add to the Halloween spookiness. But is this really a lolita dress, you might ask? I would say that it is. A maid outfit checks all the boxes, for me at least, of what a lolita dress should be. I added a few touches to this outfit, like garters and thigh highs, since the dress is shorter than the typical knee-length lolita dress. I also tried on a black wig but it just didn't suit me. You probably can't see it, but I also have a Band-Maid lapel pin on as well, and, of course, Miku's signature red rose.

Here's another shot with my guitar and Marshall amp. My favorite Band-Maid song is definitely Unleash!!!!!

A side note about Miku's choice of the red rose as a disruption color. Miku is very intelligent. She knows that splash of red gives the outfit a distinctive passionate, upbeat, and what I would call a "major third" type of feeling. Contrast that with Saiki, who always wears a blue rose (a minor third feeling), and the difference is huge with just that one subtle addition of color. Miku is perceived as happy, energetic, and very magnetic. Saiki, on the other hand, is perceived as cold, stoic, and aloof. I'm sure they do this intentionally to create some type of dynamic between them as counterbalancing forces on stage. The color red carries a very powerful emotional connection which I'm sure  Miku is very aware of. Keeping the color contained to small doses in the coord makes a big impression.

I mean, you gotta have a copy of Milky Planet. Apart from Sugary Carnival, it is the quintessential lolita dress. It's popular for a reason - because it's freakin' gorgeous. The dress features some blues, some mints, some purples, and even some yellows. It's a really colorful print that everyone loves. With this dress, I went outside my comfort zone and paired it with the matching OTKs, adding garters for extra girlyness. With so much pink, this is almost a one-color coord. However, the print offers visual relief and detail for the eye to dig into. The OTKs have a spiral-type pattern, which adds a little visual interest as well. If I had to wear this coord every day for the rest of my life and this was the only lolita dress I had, I'd be totally fine with it because it is an absolutely perfect dress in every way. In the back you even have corset lacing. 

Here we have a polyester one-piece with a bold medium blue background. Paired with a red bag and red shoes, we have a 3-color coord consisting of blue with red and white accents. A few other ancillary colors such as yellows and browns add some variety into the composition.  I wore this dress for Fourth of July and it was a big hit.

Fresh Strawberry Diner is one of my absolute favorite dresses! The white colorway paired with white knee-high stockings and red heels is the epitome of cute. In this coord, we actually have a somewhat unique harmony. In the dress, we can see some greens and some pinks, but the eye largely perceives this as a two-color harmony of white as the root note and red as the major third. I view the greens and the pinks as ancillary colors, like melody notes on top of a core harmony. This is one instance where I think white shoes would work, but personally I like to have a high shoe-to-stocking contrast, which really draws a lot of emphasis on the shoes. In this case, that red really pops and makes the outfit really come together.

Every lolita wardrobe needs one pink Sugary Carnival dress. I mean, this is what I would call an absolutely perfect dress. Yes, it's really popular, but for good reason. In my opinion it's the best dress Angelic Pretty ever released. Let's run down the list: pure cotton, back corsetry, side zip, bright colors, perfect cut. Then you have the leading lines of the carousel running up and down the dress with ponies on the bottom. I have it in black as well. If you were to get one lolita dress, it would have to be Sugary Carnival (in pink). Here in the coord I have all pink except for my bag and gloves. It's just a great dress and I always get lots of people coming up to me asking about it whenever I wear it out. So I would have to say it is indeed my favorite dress.

Bunny Chan is actually a dress that I wear more than Sugary Carnival and it's probably my second favorite dress. It looks a little bit more like a normal dress since it doesn't have any cute characters on it. What I like about it most of all is the cut, which fits me perfectly, and I mean perfectly. Therefore, I eventually tracked down the other colorways and Bunny Chan is the only dress where I have all of the colorways. The pink colorway is actually unique, though, because unlike the other colorways that have white elements, the pink colorway is pure pink 100% of the way through except for the polka dots. I actually really like this choice and it helps create an ultra cute, ultra girly presentation. I paired it with white gloves here but it could totally work to have pink gloves, essentially making it a one-color coord. The white bag adds some white into the mix. 

Here we have a solid three-color coord consisting of sax with black and white accents. The blacks add a bit of sophistication to an otherwise childish-like coord. As a general rule, I match my shoes with my bag. But not always, as you can see in my black Bunny Chan coord (pictured below).

Probably my most-worn dress, the Bunny Chan OP in red, which looks absolutely amazing with that bright red color and tasteful polka dots. At first I didn't like the bunnies on the front but now I appreciate the rather simple composition. With a matching polka dot face mask, you have a cohesive polka dot pattern throughout the coord. Sometimes I pair this with red shoes and a red bag for a two-color coord. 

Here we have an interesting choice of a two-color coord with an intentional disruption color of red chosen only for the bag. The obvious choice for the bag would have been either black or white. The choice of red, which is already a very eye-catching color, really stands out and provides a lot of visual weight to the composition. 

Sweet Cookie Box is a newly acquired dress for me. Kind of a thin material, it's not my favorite but I do like the print. In this coord we have the choice of blue shoes, which grabs the blues from the dress. Brown shoes could also have looked nice with all the browns from the cookies in the print.

Here, a nice yellow OP paired with pink shoes and a white cross-body bag for a predominantly yellow coord with two accent colors of pink and white. I almost always wear white stockings in all of my coords so white always shows up as a color in the composition. I could have also paired this dress with yellow shoes. However, I find that the pink shoes balance out the pinks in the dress for an overall balanced presentation.

This OP is a great Halloween print. It is a back zip, and one of the more challenging dresses to fit into for me. In this outfit we have a three-color coord black, white and predominantly pink accents. Some ancillary teals and purples create a really interesting color combination with lots of high contrast. I really like the high contrast of black heels with white stockings. However, with lots of colors showing up in the print, you could even pair the dress with mint or sax shoes and so lots of coords are possible with this print.

Here we have a pink OP with sax accents. Candy Pop is another dress where I have multiple colorways. In this case, I've chosen blue shoes and included the matching choker, which comes in the set. The dress actually has white polka dots which are barely visible in this picture, making this a three-color harmony. See the next picture for the back of the dress, which is one of my favorites for several reasons.

I feel like the back of a dress never gets shown enough in pictures, but it's such as big part of what makes a lolita dress unique! Here we have several elements that provide a lot of visual interest, including contrasting corset lacing and a contrasting backbow. I have included this picture so you can see a good example of what a nice and tidy backbow should look like. Learning to tie your own backbow is big step in your lolita journey, and is a milestone you should be proud of.  when you finally learn it! In this example, you have this fishtail-type design, which is my absolute favorite backbow design because it is symmetrical and provides the eye with a high emphasis on the leading lines, which look and function like arrows, pointing to the center of the backbow, where the eye continues up the corset lacing. The blue borders throughout provide a sense of closure to the pattern, giving the composition a lot of definition. All these elements make this design by Angelic Pretty one of my all-time favorites. 

Here we have a three-color harmony with pink, red, and white. Pink and red is a common color combination you will find in many lolita coords. In this instance, I've chosen a heavy emphasis on red with the choice of red shoes. The red provides a high amount of contrast with the white stockings. Additionally, the shade of pink in the dress is a deeper shade than most of my other accessories. Altogether, the ensemble is very eye-catching and you are sure to stand out in a crowd with such an outfit on. The whites in the bag provide a good counterbalance to the whites in the stockings and gloves.

Here we have a dress with a deep pink. This is a color I don't have many accessories in. There are some blues, yellows, and lavenders in the print. I think in this case, lavender or blue shoes would have looked best. The lighter pink for the shoes and bag was chosen simply out of necessity since I don't have a blue bag and I don't have lavender shoes. Even still, a varied shade of pink provides some variety to the composition.